


the roots

by hellchoirs



Series: bad things happen bingo [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Obsession, POV Outsider, Prostitution, Stalking, predatory behaviour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellchoirs/pseuds/hellchoirs
Summary: He had always been infatuated with Klaus Hargreeves, and then he left the Academy and offered himself up on a silver platter.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/Original Male Character(s)
Series: bad things happen bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759072
Comments: 5
Kudos: 69





	the roots

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the bad things happen bingo prompt 'stalking'. I was hoping doing these prompts would help me get back into writing and I have plans for most of my card. Also, this prompt is in another series - 'why storms are named after people' - as I felt a few of my prompts were somewhat related, and so this series will follow that idea with oneshots that follow those prompts. There will be around 9 fics in this series, and all of them will be whumping poor Klaus.

Robert had always been infatuated with Klaus Hargreeves. He could follow it right back to when he was fourteen years old and saw the first televised mission from the Umbrella Academy where he had seen all of the super-powered children lined up outside, and Klaus had been grinning at the reporters, leaning against one of his other brothers. 

He watched the news blow up with the Umbrella Academy. The media was in love with them, or perhaps worried for the children. They gained publicity at an incredible pace and there were two in particular members that the media became infatuated with. Allison and Klaus Hargreeves. The two charismatic ones – not that he ever cared about Allison. No, standing next to Klaus she was nothing, no matter how tall she might try to seem, no matter how she might try and draw the limelight away from him and to herself. 

Klaus was… fascinating. The Séance. He had the power to commune with the dead, and wasn’t that just utterly fascinating? Someone who could defy the laws of life and death. And Klaus looked otherworldly, too. 

He was on front covers of magazines and he grinned brightly in interviews (though that grin rapidly stopped reaching his eyes by the time he was fourteen) and when he looked into the camera it felt as if he was looking directly at him. 

So Robert gathered what he could of Klaus; all the magazines of him; cut him out of the group photos with the rest of the Academy in the other magazines; listened to every interview with him in it; he went to every return he could, lined up outside the Academy, forcing his way through the crowd to get to the front of the police so he could get his best look at Klaus; get as close to him as he could. 

And then Klaus began to slip away from the Academy. Nothing more than rumours, of course, that the Academy superstar had been seen at house parties. He tried desperately to find him, feeling a rush at the idea of fifteen year old Klaus rebelling against the Academy, out on the streets by himself, but he never did manage to catch him at any of those house parties, unfortunately, and Reginald Hargreeves made sure that the rumours were only ever rumours. 

And then the Academy began to crumble. The useless one left, followed shortly by the Kraken. At sixteen years-old, Klaus left, too.   
It took Robert a while to find him at first. Klaus had no known friends out of the Academy, nowhere to go, but he somehow had gotten his hands on some money to frequent motels for a while.   
Robert was eighteen when he finally saw him, free from the Academy, only feet from him.

The sixteen year-old had somehow managed to get into this club, probably bribing the bouncer with his reputation or just managing to sneak in, and Klaus had never looked at ease with the Academy, in that ridiculous little uniform of his, but here; he seemed to thrive. His flushed pale skin bathed in flashing lights, in pinks and purples and oranges, and he weaved in and out of the crowd of people on the dance floor, twirling and grinning wildly. 

When Robert inched his way closer, close enough to initiate anything with the boy, Klaus turned, startled at their close proximity, but saw that Robert was dancing in time to the beat anyway and so he grinned, all wide-lipped, baring his teeth, and he smelled of vodka and his pupils were blown wide and his hair looked so soft and the flashing lights of the club illuminated his silhouette like an aura.

His breath was taken away. The pictures and interviews had been good, but this – being so close, having his gaze on him, having Klaus acknowledge him – it was something else entirely. It felt like a kind of high and he was addicted.

Klaus continued to frequent clubs and parties and raves, and every time Robert saw him he looked a little more wild; dancing the night away, flirting with anyone who looked at him for longer than one second, weaselling drinks from men and snorting new lines in the bathroom. It infuriated him to see him whoring himself out like he did; pressing himself up against others, wrapping his arms around people’s necks like a lover, sloppily kissing people in the bathroom; to see other people with their hands on him lit a fire inside him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Not yet.

It was easy to figure out his schedule. Klaus often steered clear of the centre of the city and the Academy, and he rotated through places like clockwork; Robert suspected he worked on the schedules of his dealers, sticking around where he could easily get his next fix the quickest. Robert didn’t mind the drugs; how could he, when they made him so happy and carefree and frail? Though, admittedly, when the bruises in the crook of his elbows began to appear, it hurt for a few minutes. 

Klaus developed a new schedule. He worked around his dealers, but now there were specific nights (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) where he frequented seedy street corners. He would stand underneath a flickering streetlight, clad in skin-tight clothes (or clothes that were supposed to be skin-tight but sagged on him in places when the drugs and his poor lifestyle caught up to him) and dark makeup that made his eyes pop. 

Of course, Robert was tempted to buy him for a night (or many.) God knows the guy needed the money, even if it would only be spent on a variety of drugs, and perhaps makeup, rather than any food or shelter, and god knows Robert was dying to be able to touch Klaus; to see every inch of him. But not yet – not like that. (And plus, he couldn’t stand the thought of taking Klaus after other men already had. The idea made him sick but he would deal with it later.)

Klaus was slippery. 

He had, of course, attempted to approach him multiple times. He had even gotten as far as sloppily making out with him in a bathroom, and it had felt right. Their lips had slotted together and his bony hips had pressed against his and his heart had skipped a beat. Honestly, he had thought this was his chance, but Klaus had parted and offered him a grin. His chest heaved breathlessly against his and he rested his hands on Robert’s wrists, gently moving them from his hips.

“I need to get something,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t come back. Robert had been furious, both with Klaus and himself for letting such an opportunity slip through his fingers.

Through his time watching Klaus, he had come to understand him. Klaus was always high or drunk, or both. Klaus sold himself to get money for drugs. Klaus was a good kisser (he tried not to think of how many other people he had kissed.) Klaus craved affection and intimacy; if you caressed his cheek, he just melted. His façade fell if you kissed him and held him gently; if you whispered soft things to him. He would close his eyes and lean into you like a cat nuzzling into its owners hand, and the tension from his body would melt away and he would let himself believe whatever you said. Klaus, however, would not ask for this affection; hiding behind a party-animal, no-strings-attached façade, reckless and wild. Robert knew how to appeal to the façade and to what Klaus really wanted, and he hoped he did it in a way that didn’t scare him off.

He learned to be patient. He was infatuated with the man, determined to get close to him and make him his like he should be, but he had to fight the conflict he felt whenever he saw Klaus on a street corner; whenever he saw Klaus warming up to a stranger; whenever he saw him curled up on his side in some crack-house, too high to even remember his own name. 

The poor thing couldn’t take care of himself. Robert had found him choking on his own puke once, stuck on his back and too high or drunk or both to help himself. He had made sure he wouldn’t choke then and there, and he couldn’t help but linger for a while, carding his fingers through his dirty hair and watching how his eyes rolled and how, even too high to do anything, he had leaned into his hand in search of comfort and affection. He shouldn’t be so trusting of strangers; others didn’t have his best interests at heart like he did. 

Klaus needed someone else to take care of him; needed to let go of his responsibilities, needed someone to make his decisions for him and needed discipline. 

Robert was willing to do that. He had waited years already, he could wait a little longer. The chance would present itself; he trusted himself that it would.

And he was right to do so. He was twenty-seven when it finally came around and he was done waiting and watching, even if Klaus looked pretty when he didn't know people were looking at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Just to reiterate the first note, this is part of its own series as well as bad things happen bingo, and so there will be more continuing on from it, so if you would like to see those then I suggest subscribing to the series :) thank you for reading


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